The NSW Addressing User Manual (AUM) outlines the Geographical Names Board (GNB) policy, principles, processes and procedures for addressing in New South Wales. Government agencies play an integral role in the assignment of addresses. This reference guide has been developed to highlights the key areas of responsibility and interest government agencies.

The AUM is an extension of the AS/NZS 4819:2011 Rural and Urban Addressing Standard and provides for the production, aggregation, publication and use of address data in NSW. It is the foundation for creation of quality addresses which should be captured as early as possible, clearly understood by the community (i.e. there is no reliance on anything other than the authoritative address to identify a location) and maintained through standardised quality assurance processes.

The AUM repeals all existing GNB policies and guidelines in respect to addressing in NSW. The policy contained in Chapter 2 of the AUM does not apply retrospectively. Arrangements that predate this policy are not necessarily subject to its terms. For information regarding these addresses refer to the NSW Retrospective Address Policy.

Address Data Governance and Custodianship – AUM Chapter 3Government agency responsibilitiesAddresses must be properly and unambiguously produced to allow for accurate and reliable site identification to support timely and efficient emergency service and other service delivery.

Consistency of data is required and minimum components must be provided to ensure quality and accuracy of address data. Derivation and production of address data components is governed by the NSW Addressing User Manual to ensure consistency of application.

There are many pieces of legislation and regulations that government agencies must adhere to including:

• Roads Act 1993 (No 33)

• Residential Parks Act 1998

• State Environmental Planning Policy No 70 SEPP (Affordable Rental Housing) 2009

• Conveyancing Act 1919 No 6

• Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979

• Housing Act 2001 No 52

• Development Assessment Guidelines

• Community Land Development Regulation 2007 [2007-410]

• Conveyancing (General) Regulation 2008.

The functions outlined for government agencies facilitate and support the maintenance of a single-source of truth address database for NSW. The NSW Address Database contains quality information which can be accessed and exchanged with confidence by all end users.

GeographicalNames Board

Addressing for government agencies - reference guide

ISSN 2204-9487 September 2018www.gnb.nsw.gov.au

Spatial Services, a unit of Department of Finance, Services and Innovation

Maintenance of address data accuracy is an integral component of maintaining data quality within organisations. The Address Verification Web Services will provide a link between address users and the NSW Address Database to ensure address data can be efficiently maintained by the user. Persistent Address IDs are the link between user systems and the NSW Address Database to ensure data integrity.

Functions of government agencies as data producers and usersGovernment agencies with oversight of residential, commercial or public land which contain addressable sites are responsible for proposing core address components within the area they govern. This information is then required to be provided to Spatial Services, through local government, on a regular basis.

Production of addresses should be undertaken as outlined in the NSW Addressing User Manual. Functions that government agencies can perform to support comprehensive and standardised addressing are:

• maintain awareness of applicable standards, policies, procedures and guidelines

• name all roads in their area of governance that are generally open to the public

• to propose addresses within their area of governance including for named private roads, with reference to local government, ensuring that all addresses established in NSW are defined with the minimum Core Address Components ensuring that these conform to the requirements of the NSW Addressing User Manual

• produce new addresses at the earliest practical time during the development cycle

• record address data and provide access to local governments, Spatial Services and the GNB to address information within their area of governance

• cooperatively work with local governments and Spatial Services to maintain a single source of truth address database

• as the authority, formulate road naming and street address policies for that government agency, under the guidance of the NSW Addressing User Manual

• consult with individuals, stakeholders and special interest groups on road naming proposals to reach community consensus (where relevant)

• record all the addresses for which they are custodian, and wherever feasible provide effective maintenance arrangements including advising Spatial Services of any new, revised or deprecated Core Address Data as per established Data Supply Contracts and/or timeframes required.

Functions of government agencies as data users• Data producers are strongly encouraged to utilise address data from the NSW Address Database

within their systems.

• Government agencies should ensure they provision access to the NSW Address Database and associated Core Address Data and Core Components within their systems.

• Agencies may develop in-house systems for attributing business-specific details to the data, but there is no requirement for Spatial Services to aggregate, maintain or distribute this information.

• Agencies should maintain awareness of NSW Government Information Framework relevant to capture and management of address data as per NSW Government ICT Strategy guidelines and standards currently published at www.finance.nsw.gov.au/ict/resources.

• Users will be able to access the NSW Address Database through Address Verification Web Services.

• Users are encouraged to utilise Persistent Address IDs within their systems to facilitate standardised practice for reporting errors, omissions, redundancies and issues with data maintained in the NSW Address Database.

• Government agencies should refer to the NSW Government Standard for Spatially Enabling Information for guidance on exchange mechanisms and address data management within their systems.

Spatial Services, a unit of Department of Finance, Services and Innovation

Naming and Address

Requirements

AP6 DA Exempt DevelopmentsState Significant Assessment System – Development Application process

Concept Plans

Development Documentation

DGRApplication

AP6.1Development Identified as

potentially DA Exempt

AP6.2Prepare Application for

EnvironmentalAssessment requirements

AP6.9Prepare EnvironmentalImpact Statement (EIS)

(includes DGRs, Communityconsultation & EP&A Regs)

AP6.3Director-General Dept.

Planning and Infrastructurereviews application or

Environmental Assessment requirements (DGR)

f

UnsuitableNames

AP6.4 Consult with the relevant

public authorities for input into the DGR

AP6.5 Consult with the Local

Govt(s) for input into DGRsincluding address

AP6.11SSI Construction Phase

AP6.10SSD DA prepared for

lodgement with Local Govt. under Part 4 of EP&A Act

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Consultation

AP6.6Dept. Planning and

Infrastructure issue DGRsrelease for Public exhibition

≥ 30days

AP6.7Public’s Consideration

AP6.8Dept. Planning and

Infrastructure Finalises and Issues

DGRs

Advertising

FeedbackDGRs &

Pre-approvedAddresses

AP6.12SSD Construction Phase

see AP5.3Development Application

Process

ValidationReport

see AP5.7Surveyors

Validate ePlan and/or Lodge

DP/SP

see AP5.8DP Examination

and Address Approval

see AP5.9Issue of Gazettal

Notice

ePlan Lodged Survey DP

Address for New Lots

CAD/GIS Survey Data

Addressing Processes – AUM Chapter 8

Opportunity for address capture No. 1

AP6.2 Prepare Application for Environmental Assessment requirements

Once the project’s feasibility has been determined concept plans are then used to develop the DGR Application for Environmental Assessment.

This application must address strict government requirements for development and should consider addressing requirements at this early stage. Where numbering, road naming or locality name/boundary information is included in the preparations, reference should be made to the principles outlined in AUM Chapter 6 – Addressing Principles to ensure the addresses will conform to requirements of the NSW Address Policy.

Which process to use?There are seven processes outlined in the NSW Addressing User Manual. AP6 – Addressing – DA Exempt Developments is the most relevant to government agencies. An overview of select components of the process has been shown, for full details please refer to AUM - Chapter 8.

What is the process?The process steps shown in AP6 outline the end-to-end requirements for developments that do not generally involve the DA process as some DAs are submitted under Part 4 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act).

DA exempt developments are usually held under a single parent title or a small set of adjoining land titles on behalf of the Crown.

Applicants can be either public or private for:

• State Significant Developments (SSD) processed by local government under Part 4 of EP&A Act with flexibility to exceed local development standards. The Development Application process is used but exemptions and variations are possible to allow these developments to be built as they have a scale, significance or potential impact that makes them significant to a region or the state.

• State Significant Infrastructure (SSI) mainly public authorities constructing roads, railways or pipelines which don’t require consent but have significant environment impact (e.g. a port).

The naming and addressing of these developments will be significant and require early local government, Spatial Services and GNB input to ensure community expectations are met.

Opportunity for address capture No. 2

AP6.4 Consult with the relevant public authorities for input into the DGR

At this task, the Department of Planning and Infrastructure consults with the relevant public authorities for input into the DGR.

The consultation should consider addressing requirements and reference be made to local government requirements for numbering, road naming or locality boundaries which should comply with the principles outlined in AUM Chapter 6 – Addressing Principles.

AP6 encourages the capture of an authoritative address as early in the development process as possible to maximise benefits from address use and reuse and to help avoid introduction of erroneous address data.

Who controls State Significant Developments?

In addition to the planning controls of local government, the Department of Planning and Infrastructure is predominantly responsible for assessing planning applications under the State Significant Assessment System for projects whose size, complexity, importance or potential impacts mean they are of State, rather than local or regional, significance. The aims of the State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) are as follows:

a) to identify development that is State significant

b) to identify development that is State significant infrastructure and critical State significant infrastructure

c) to confer functions on joint regional planning panels to determine development applications.

It is these SEPP developments that are generally exempt from local government DA processes that are the subject of this address process. The steps shown here are to mitigate the lack of formally approval workflow that normally enables address allocation to be managed.

Opportunity for address capture No. 3

AP6.13 Survey lodgment and Road Name Gazettal

Following the Construction Phase are optional stages taken from the normal land development process that sees the preparation of deposited plans to initiate the creation of land titles and the gazettal of road names.

The tasks required to have addresses completed and included in the NSW Address Database are referred to in AP5 - Addressing - Development and Subdivision and should be followed, in particular:

AP5.3 Development Application Process

AP5.7 Surveyors Validate e-Plan and Lodge DP/SP

AP5.8 DP Examination and Address Approval

AP5.9 Issue of Gazettal Notice

Addressing Principles – AUM Chapter 6

Address numbersAddress numbers shall be:a. Unique, clear, logical and unambiguous.b. Sequential positive integers commencing from

the datum point.c. Odd numbers on the left side of the road (from

the datum point) and even on the right side.d. Created without prefixes, in the form of

preceding alphabetical characters.e. Singular, i.e. no number ranging shall be used.f. Distinct from Lot Numbersg. Numbering shall adhere to these principles,

regardless of individual preferences regarding number or naming types.

Determination of address numberThe main access, or where access is most likely to occur for a visitor, from a road to an address site (e.g. front door) determines the primary address. Sometimes there might be separate vehicular and pedestrian access to a site. The primary address should be allocated to the pedestrian access point; the alternative address should be allocated to the vehicular access point. Where pedestrian access is provided via a pathway, not a named road, the pathway shall be named in accordance with AUM Principle 6.7.3 - Roads to be Named.

Sub-addressingSub-address numbering shall be used for address sites that are contained within a primary address site e.g. an apartment building, block of flats or marina.

Multi-level sub-address allocationSub-address numbers in multi-level buildings shall consist of two parts. The first part shall be one or more alphanumeric characters which represent the level and room. The last two digits shall be the address number for the site (this is commonly referred to as ‘hotel-style numbering’). The last two digits in the sub-address number shall be unique on that level.

Spatial Services, a unit of Department of Finance, Services and Innovation

More informationThe NSW Address Policy and NSW Addressing User Manual can be downloaded from the GNB website www.gnb.nsw.gov.au

For more information on any aspect of addressing or the addressing process please contact the NSW Addressing Committee SS-GNB@finance.nsw.gov.au or 02 6332 8070.

Alternative addressesWhere a primary address site has more than one access point, it may be assigned one or more alternative addresses. Corner sites with only one access point shall have only one address - on the road that the site is accessed from.

X X X X X X X

O O O O O O O

X X X X X X X

O O O O O O O

OX

Reserving numbersAdditional numbers should be reserved for address sites with abnormally wide frontages or where there is potential for urban infill. Reserving numbers means sufficient numbers should be available for any possible future development design.

Road extentsThe extent of a named road shall be defined by the formed road, and shall include only one section navigable by vehicles or foot. Unconnected navigable sections, such as where separated by an unbridged stream or a physical barrier, shall be assigned separate names.

Distance based numbering systemThe system for determining address numbers in rural and semi-rural areas is based on the distance of the access point from the road datum point. This distance is measured in metres and then divided by 10 - after which the number is then rounded to the nearest odd number (for points on the left side of the road from the datum point), or nearest even number (for points on the right side of the road).

© Crown in right of New South Wales through Department of Finance, Services and Innovation 2018. This copyright work is licensed under a Creative Commons Australia Attribution 3.0 licence, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/auAuthor: DFSI Spatial Services | P18/10/068

Geographical Names BoardPO Box 143 Bathurst NSW 2795T: 1800 025 700E: SS-GNB@finance.nsw.gov.au